Lookouts: Firewatchers of the Cascades and Olympics

* History of 75 fire-protection lookouts

* More than 200 photos from archival and personal collections

* Selected access information



Once the most advanced means of fire detection, the fire-protection lookout towers built and manned in the mid- to late-1900s in Washington state are now historic sites and an intrinsic part of the heritage of the Northwest and its people. Lookouts: Firewatchers of the Cascades and Olympics is a complete history of the lookouts and a tribute to the people who often endured challenging conditionsñfrom loneliness to forbidding weatherñwhile serving as firewatchers. Authors Ira Spring and Byron Fish paint a vivid picture of each lookout tower in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Mount Rainier National Park, the Olympics, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Wenatchee National Forest, and Okanogan National Forest, and provide inspirational personal anecdotes from the people who manned and worked to preserve these buildings.


This edition includes appendixes that provide driving and hiking directions to selected lookouts, information on volunteer organizations active in preserving lookouts, and a historical registry of western Washington lookouts.